Chelsea got over their surprise weekend loss to Newcastle by comfortably beating Schalke 04 to take control of their group, thanks to two Samuel Eto’o goals and one from Demba Ba.
Schalke got off to a decent start, but a horrible mistake from Timo Hildebrand gave Chelsea a 1-0 lead in the first half, before Eto’o and Ba added two more to seal victory in the second.
José Mourinho’s men won convincingly 3-0 in the away game against the Germans, but the visitors started brightly this time, immediately putting Chelsea under pressure.
Julian Draxler was looking typically lively and went close in the opening minutes, before Adam Szalai also fired wide with Petr Cech beaten.
The Schalke keeper was to then undo his fine work however, after taking forever to complete a routine clearance after putting the ball down, he allowed Samuel Eto’o to deflect his kick into the empty net, ruining his side’s fine display up until that point.
The goal seemed to deflate Schalke and the rest of the half was a fairly dull affair with no more chances for either side.
After half-time, however, Chelsea upped their game and didn’t take long to register a killer second goal, with Willian breezing down the wing and playing in Eto’o to double his and his team’s tally for the evening and giving Schalke little chance of getting something from the game.
The visitors then seemed utterly deflated and Oscar had the ball in the net for a third after a cheeky scooped finish, only to be denied by the linesman’s flag.
It wasn’t too much longer before Chelsea did have their third, however, after substitute Frank Lampard played a fine pass for Demba Ba, who volleyed home to replicate the scoreline in Gelsenkirchen.
Trending
- Tinubu condoles with Iran over death of President Raisi, others in helicopter crash
- Students loan: NELFUND speaks on first beneficiaries
- Businessman arraigned for allegedly obtaining N22m under false pretences
- Yahaya Bello: Hearing in EFCC chair’s motion against contempt proceedings stalled
- Teacher arrested for beating eight-year-old pupil to coma in Anambra
- Rivers crisis: Jonathan urges Wike, Fubara to end feud
- Abuja shopping complex locked down by Military over assault on soldiers
- Alleged N6b laundering: Fidelity Bank staff testifies against Mompha